Story here. Excerpt:

'Auckland, May 4 (IANS) A New Zealand teenager has admitted she falsely accused a man of raping her.

Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber Tuesday told the 19-year-old student that her lies had “devalued the currency” for women who made genuine complaints of rape, New Zealand Herald reported.

Erber said that people may look at other women’s complaints sceptically because of her actions.

The teenager pleaded guilty in court to the charge of making a false statement.

“In explanation, she stated she did it because she liked the attention,” Constable Michael Tualii, the police prosecutor, was quoted as telling the court.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Latrobe woman, who allegedly instigated an attack on a man she accused of sexual assault, has been charged with falsely accusing another man of raping her weeks earlier.

Felisha Hardison, 24, of 14 W. Harrison Ave., was arraigned yesterday by District Judge Michael Mahady for allegedly filing a false report with Latrobe police on March 31.

Hardison told police she had been raped by a man with whom she has three children. Hardison claimed the man forced her to have sex with him, punched her and choked her, and videotaped the act with his cell phone camera.

The man denied the allegations and said Hardison made the accusations to get custody of one of their children. A review of the cell phone camera footage contradicted Hardison's claims of rape and showed the two had consensual sex, police said.

Hardison was arraigned on the charge yesterday, the same day she and five others faced a preliminary hearing on charges they assaulted another man Hardison had accused of sexual assault.'

Story here.

'(UALR Public Radio) - Police say the mother of a woman accused of filing a false rape accusation at Fort Smith now faces a charge as well.

A news release from Fort Smith police says 39-year-old Ericka Lee Church of Sallisaw, Okla., has been charged with harassing communications, a misdemeanor.

The release said Church made harassing phone calls and sent text messages and Face Book postings to Steven David, accusing him of raping her daughter.

David was one of two men accused by Church's daughter, Heather Smith also known as Heather Boss and another woman of raping Smith. Fort Smith police say they have cleared both men of the accusations, and have charged both women with filing a false police report, a felony.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Oakland University student admitted to police that she falsely reported she had been raped by two men to get attention and support from her boyfriend, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Now Jessica Joe is facing a felony charge herself.

According to the sheriff’s office, the 21-year-old Detroit resident was arraigned Tuesday in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills on a count of filing a false report of a felony and was released on a $10,000 personal bond.

Joe, police said, reported on April 24 that she was walking out of the CVS Pharmacy at Adams and Walton, when she was grabbed by two men and dragged into a van parked next to her car. She told police that the men pulled her clothing off and one man drove around, while the other man raped her and was eventually pushed out of the van in the lot, according to the sheriff’s office.'

Abusegate Bob has penned a series of new articles covering the hearing and VAWA in general. Good news includes the fact that male DV victims were indeed brought up at the hearing. This is a start; they have been invisible and to government officials and unmentioned since VAWA started. Progress. See http://abusegate.mensnewsdaily.com/

Note that most of the testimony delivered today is available for download as .pdf files. Go to the hearing page and look at the right-hand column under "Witness Testimony". You can download and read the statements. Of note is Dr. Gelles' statement which discusses on pages 6 and 7 of the .pdf file the lack of scope of the Act for male and other victims of DV. In his conclusion he states that this is an opportunity to revisit the scope of VAWA and to start including men in its consideration but also disputes the notion that the economic downturn we are in is causing an increase in DV generally.

I have read the other statements. [I am including contact information for those who made them. But if you choose to contact any of them and voice your concerns, I urge you to be factual and polite. (I suggest where possible that you use email over telephone since it is harder to get into heated arguments over email.) You will be a lot more persuasive if you point out the well-documented facts around male DV victims vs. being accusatory and making unproductive comments about, say, their relatives.] My take:

The Honorable Susan Carbon: No mention at all of male DV victims except on page 10 of the .pdf where she says: '...According to the 2007 "Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance" survey...approximately 10% of adolescents nationwide reported being hit, slapped, or physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past year.' (Contact here)

From Abusegate Bob:

On Wednesday May 5 at 10am Eastern time, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Violence Against Women Act. The hearing page is here: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4562

Even though you could not be there in person, you CAN submit testimony to the Committee. It's simple; just write a concise, polite letter about your experiences with VAWA, and email to Senators Leahy (Democrat of Vermont) and Sessions (Republican of Alabama). It is preferable that your letter not be longer than one page.

Just fill in the missing places in the draft letter below, and email it to:

Anya McMurray (Leahy's staffer): Anya_McMurray-at-judiciary-dem.senate.gov
Bradley Hayes (Sessions' staffer): Bradley_Hayes-at-judiciary-rep.senate.gov

Article here. Excerpt:

'CALGARY - Minutes after she is alleged to have fatally shot her common-law husband Kevin Dunseath in the head, Lela Mae La France phoned a friend looking for drugs, court heard Tuesday.

Claude St. Germaine testified he received the call from La France just after midnight on Aug. 9, 2008, requesting crack cocaine and telling him, "I killed him."

St. Germaine said he put his cell phone on speaker phone at the rural home, so three friends could hear what she was saying to La France on the call from hers and Dunseath's home in Strathmore, 40 kilometres east of Calgary.

"She said, 'I finally did it, I did what we had discussed, I killed him,'" the witness told Crown prosecutor Eric Tolppanen.

La France, 40, on trial for second-degree murder, has pleaded not guilty in connection with the death of Dunseath, 46.'

Article here. This is some very good exposure for this issue. Dr. Helen Smith is widely-syndicated and her column appear all over the place. Just Google "Ask Dr. Helen" to see. Excerpt:

'The other day I received an email from reader Kevin who is concerned about the increase in the depiction of sexual violence — particularly that of genital assault — against men in our society:

Dear Dr. Helen,

I want to ask you about something because you seem to be a logical and rational person and I am having trouble finding any logical, rational people who have the guts to speak out about this one particular issue.

Ever since I was a kid I have noticed a steady rise in the depictions of sexual violence against males in movies, and later in television. It was obvious that these depictions, always the hero sexually assaulting the villain and almost never the other way around, were encouraging this kind of sexual violence against males. As soon as it became a regular Disney staple it became a regular part of every boy’s life, something he had to endure repeatedly as part of growing up. Even as a kid I was baffled by parents willingness to let this go and not protest it. ...

Article here. Excerpt:

'A group of 50 mental health experts from 10 countries are part of an effort to add Parental Alienation Disorder to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of diagnoses. This scientific coalition is led by psychiatrist William Bernet, who explains that adding PAD to DSM “would spur insurance coverage, stimulate more systematic research, lend credence to a charge of parental alienation in court, and raise the odds that children would get timely treatment.”

From Abusegate Bob:

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on VAWA on May 5 at 10:00 AM Eastern Time-- the day before our big lobbying event May 6-7. Rest assured, the timing of the Senate hearing is no coincidence.

For the first time, the Committee has invited a mainstream, reputable researcher to testify, Dr. Richard Gelles of the University of Pennsylvania. It will be very interesting to see what Gelles has to say, since a few years ago he published an article ridiculing ideologically-driven DV researchers: The politics of research: The use, abuse, and misuse of social science data—The cases of intimate partner violence. Family Court Review, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2007.

I would invite everyone to watch the hearing live on the Judiciary Committee website

Below is the witness list. This may be a break-through event for us.

Release here. Excerpt:

Jim Crow Justice under Partner Abuse Laws, Report Finds

WASHINGTON, May 3 / U.S. Newswire / -- Each year an estimated two million Americans see their basic rights compromised or vitiated by heavy-handed domestic violence policies. This number rivals, and in some ways surpasses the legal abuses of the infamous Jim Crow era, according to a report released today.

The analysis, “Assaulting our Rights: How Domestic Violence Laws Curtail our Fundamental Freedoms” is published by SAVE – Stop Abusive and Violent Environments. The report is available online: http://www.saveservices.org/special-reports/

Constitutional law experts have long expressed doubts about “get-tough” domestic violence policies. According to Cheryl Hanna of the Vermont Law School, “evidentiary standards for proving abuse have been so relaxed that any man who stands accused is considered guilty.”

Video report here. Basically, she planned her own fake abduction, was in fact the one who suggested it to her boyfriend, and wouldn't consider a divorce due to her 'spiritual beliefs'. In short, she had no excuse at all. Yet there are no immediate plans to charge her with something like perpetuating a public fraud, etc. Again, the female discount is at play. There is actually the suggestion that SHE might divorce HIM and seek custody of their daughter!

And yet her husband stays with her. I wonder what if anything have other people said to this guy about such things as self-respect and boundaries. This is an example of how badly messed up the minds are of some men due to the brainwashing that nymphotropism inflicts. It is reinforced at every turn, including (most especially) in religious institutions and belief systems. There are actually people who will in all sincerity look at something like this and say yes, he is doing the right thing by staying with her and "trying to make it work." Just how many times does one need to be betrayed before he (or she) gets it?

Article here. Excerpt:

'The problem is that women will form the majority of UK medics after 2017, thanks to a ten-fold rise in their numbers entering training. Most of them will be in their childbearing years.

In order to continue working, they will need proper support while starting families, as well as careers where they can happily combine work with raising children. But an array of official reports reveals how the NHS is sorely failing to meet this need.

The result is a time-bomb for patient care, with the health service facing significant shortages in crucial hospital specialties as young women doctors head instead to the few areas of the health service where they can mix work and family.

From Abusegate Bob:

Today SAVE (Stop Abusive and Violent Environments) is releasing a new Special Report, "Assaulting our Rights: How Domestic Violence Laws Curtail our Fundamental Freedoms." The report can be seen here: http://www.saveservices.org/special-reports/

The report's conclusion? The Violence Against Women Act has violated the fundamental rights of more innocent Americans, in more ways, and for a longer period of time, than probably any other law passed in the history of the United States!

Sen. Leahy is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will play a lead role in the upcoming reauthorization of VAWA.

Call Sen. Leahy's office now at 202-224-4242. Tell him this simple but important message: "VAWA is the new Jim Crow. Fix the Violence Against Women Act now!"

As always, be polite and respectful.